Sipping this Lemonade

Sipping this Lemonade

I’m preparing for the recording of our podcast today which requires me to watch Beyonce’s phenomenal video album, Lemonade again this morning while preparing for our E4A Office Hours weekly support call.

Now I watched the premier broadcast and simultaneously followed the conversation on twitter while it was happening. If you don’t see the conversation that happens during events like these, you’re probably missing the impact, influence, and power of the project. People are moved.

So as I’m sitting here calculating protein targets and looking over body fat percentages, I’m also admiring the message of this incredible story of love, faith and forgiveness. Let’s not leave out betrayal, insecurity and anger… all of the entry points that allowed the triumphant story to unfold.

So WHY am I writing to you about a Beyonce album instead of about what you should be eating, or how you should be training, the amount of sleep you should be getting at night?

Well, she did something that I’m not always so good at, and that I admire: She met a large portion of her audience where they are. That’s huge, and I need to keep that in mind in our coaching practice.

Here’s an example. Say you want to lose weight and keep it off, and you’ve BEEN working out for while but you just cant seem to break a certain progress barrier. So you finally break down and think ok, maybe I’ll actually give this nutrition thing a try… (not diet mind you, I’m not using the four letter D-word!)

What do many people do? They look for a meal plan. Some even reach out to me and ask “hey, where are the meal plans on your site?” But there are no meal plans on our site. Why? Because they are too easy to break, which can cause stress, and all or nothing days… I could go on. For most people they don’t work!

But that’s the point. People buy them though, because that’s where they are. That’s what they’re ready to do.

In order for Bey to deliver her message of love and understanding and growth, she had to enter the conversation where many women are. She shows betrayal, and the pain that comes with it, she flushes out the full extent of that anger and hurt. We can feel it too because we’ve been there!

THEN, once we’re all on board, and nodding our heads “yes,” she leads the conversation in the direction of growth and expansion. And that’s the part I’m going to work on.

Does that mean I’ll start selling meal plans (that won’t get worked) or $9.99 DVDs in Target? I don’t think that’s the answer for me. I will however be more mindful of the way proactive wellness, weight loss, and nutrition are currently marketed and build a bridge between that, and what I know from experience and study that works.